THE UNICORN HUNT
FROM THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING
BY T.H. WHITE
CAST
GAWAINE
AGRAVAINE
GAHERIS
GARETH
MORGAUSE
MEG
Oldest Prince of Orkney
Prince of Orkney
Prince of Orkney
Youngest Prince
Queen of Orkney
Kitchenmaid
NARRATOR:
Gawaine, Agravaine,
Gaheris, and Gareth were the four
young nephews of King Arthur. They
do not grow up in Camelot, but far
away in the wilds of Scotland in a
kingdom called Orkney. At the time of
this story their ages ranged from
fourteen to ten. Gawain was the eldest.
Agravaine was the bully of family—
shifty, inclined to cry, and frightened of
pain.
Gaheris was a dim-witted
follower. Gareth, the youngest, was
naïve but blessed with a good heart.
The boys were raised by their mother,
Queen Morgause, a cold, selfish woman
who kept her children at a distance. She
doubled as an evil sorceress and had
poisoned her sons against their uncle
Arthur with her manipulating words.
For many weeks, she had been absent
from their castle, helping a trio of
knights (Sir Grummore, Sir Pellinore,
and Sir Palomides) capture a unicorn.
Because of her absence, the princes
planned to sneak out into the woods
and capture the unicorn themselves,
therefore, delighting and pleasing their
mother and allowing her to return to
their home.
The boys looked in a bestiary to see
how a unicorn might be captured. It
seemed that the Unicorn was as swift
and timid as the Antalop, and could
only be captured in one way. You had
to have a maid for bait, and, when the
Unicorn perceived her alone, he would
immediately come to lay his horn in her
lap.
There was a picture of an
unreliable-looking virgin, holding the
poor creature’s horn in one hand, while
she beckoned to some spearman with
the other. Her expression of duplicity
was balanced by the foolish confidence
with which the Unicorn regarded her.
Gawaine hurried off, as soon as the
instructions had been read and the
picture
digested,
to
fetch
the
kitchenmaid without delay.
GAWAINE: Now then, you have to
come with us on the mountain to catch a
unicorn.
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MEG: Oh, Master Gawaine!
MEG: Yes, Master Gawaine.
NARRATOR: The maid he had caught
hold of name was named Meg.
GAWAINE: There.
GAHERIS: Then she must be tied.
GAWAINE: Yes, you have to come.
You are to be the bait. It will come and
put its head in your lap.
NARRATOR: Meg began to weep.
MEG: Oh Master Gaheris, if it is your
will—need I be tied?
GAHERIS: Close your mouth. You are
only a girl.
GAWAINE: Now then, do not be silly.
MEG: Oh, Master Gawaine, I do not
want a unicorn. I have been a decent
girl, I have, and there is all the washing
up to do, and if Mistress Truelove do
catch me playing at truant I shall get
stick, Master Gawaine, that I will.
NARRATOR:
He took her firmly by
the plaits and led her out.
In the clean bog-wind of the high
tops, they discussed the hunt. Meg,
who cried incessantly, was held by the
hair to prevent her from running away,
and occasionally passed from one boy to
the other, if the one who was holding
her happened to want both hands for
gestures.
GAWAINE:
Now then.
I am the
captain. I am the oldest, so I am the
captain.
GARETH:
with.
There is nothing to tie her
GAWAINE:
But you will destroy
everything, if you do not do so.
GARETH: I do not see why I should
have to go. I thought of it.
GAWAINE:
Then I command our
Agravaine to go.
AGRAVAINE: Not I.
GAWAINE: Let Gaheris go.
GAHERIS: I will not.
GAWAINE: Meg, you wicked girl, you
are not to run away, do you hear?
MEG: Yes, Master Gawaine. But, oh,
Master Gawaine…
GARETH: I thought of it.
GAWAINE: It says in the book that the
bait must be left alone.
AGRAVAINE: If we could find a
strong heather root, we could tie her
pigtails together, round the other side of
it.
GARETH: She will run away.
GAWAINE: We will do that.
GAWAINE: Will you run away, Meg?
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MEG: Oh, oh!
GARETH: Never mind, Meg, do not
cry. We will not let it hurt you.
NARRATOR: After they had secured
the virgin, the four boys stood round
her, discussing the next stage. They had
abstracted real boar-spears from the
armory, so they were properly armed.
AGRAVAINE: (strangely) This girl is
my mother. This is what our Mammy
was at doing yesterday. And I am going
to be Sir Grummore.
GAHERIS: I will be Pellinore.
GAWAINE:
Agravaine can be
Grummore if he wants to be, but the bait
has got to be left alone. It says so in the
book.
AGRAVAINE: After all, it can only kill
you.
NARRATOR: At this the unfortunate
girl began to weep more than ever.
GAWAINE: Why did you say that?
You always try to frighten people. Now
she is at howling more than before.
GARETH: Look. Look, Meg. Poor
Meg, do not cry. It will be with me to let
you have some shots with my catapult,
when we go home.
MEG: Oh, Master Gareth!
MEG: Oh, Master Gawaine! Oh, Master
Agravaine!
GAWAINE: Ach, come your ways. We
cannot bother with her.
GAHERIS: Stop howling.
frighten the unicorn.
GARETH: There, there!
You will
MEG: Oh, oh!
GAWAINE: And then we must go
away and hide. That is why our mother
did not catch it, because the knights
stayed with her.
GARETH:
MacCoul.
GAWAINE:
Meg,
said Gawaine,
making a frightful face, if you do not
stop squealing, I will look at you like
this.
I am going to be Finn
GAHERIS: I shall be Sir Palomides.
MEG: Oh, Maser Gawaine, pray do not
leave me alone.
GAWAINE: Hold your noise. You are
silly. You ought to be proud to be the
bait. Our mother was, yesterday.
NARRATOR:
frightful face.
once.
Gawaine made a
She dried her tears at
GAWAINE: Now, he said, when the
unicorn comes, we must all rush out
and stick it. Do you understand?
GARETH: Must it be killed?
GAWAINE: Yes, it must be killed dead.
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GARETH: I see. I hope it will not hurt
it.
AGRAVAINE:
That is the sort of
foolish hope you would have, said
Agravaine.
GARETH: But I do not see why it
should be killed.
AGRAVAINE: So that we may take it
home to our mother, you idiot.
GARETH: Could we catch it and lead it
to our mother, do you think? I mean,
we could get Meg to lead it, if it was
tame.
NARRATOR:
agreed to this.
Gawaine and Gaheris
GAWAINE: If it is tame, it would be
better to bring it back alive. That is the
best kind of Big Game Hunting.
AGRAVAINE: We could drive it. We
could hit it along with sticks.
NARRATOR:
afterthought.
He was such a noble animal, to begin
with, that he carried a beauty with him.
It held all spellbound who were within
sight.
The unicorn was white, with hoofs
of silver and a graceful horn of pearl.
He stepped dainty over the heather,
scarcely seeming to press it with his airy
trot, and the wind made waves in his
long mane, which had been freshly
combed. The glorious thing about him
was his eyes. There was a faint bluish
furrow down each side of his nose, and
this led up to the eye-sockets, and
surrounded them in a pensive shade.
The eyes, circled by this sad and
beautiful darkness, were so sorrowful,
lonely, gentle and noble tragic, that they
killed all other emotion except love.
The unicorn went up to Meg the
kitchenmaid, and bowed his head in
front of her.
He arched his neck
beautifully to do this, and the pearl horn
pointed to the ground at her feet, and he
scratched in the heather with his silver
hoof to make a salute.
Meg had
forgotten her tears. She made a royal
gesture of acknowledgment, and held
her hand out to the animal.
Then he added an
MEG: Come, unicorn.
in my lap, if you like.
Lay your head
AGRAVAINE: We could hit Meg, too.
NARRATOR:
Then
they hid
themselves in their ambush, and
decided to keep silence. There was
nothing to be heard except the gentle
wind, the heather bees, the skylarks
very high, and a few distant snuffles
from Meg.
When the unicorn came, things were
different from what had been expected.
NARRATOR: The unicorn made a
whinny, and pawed again with his hoof.
Then very carefully, he went down first
on one knee and then on the other, till
he was bowing in front of her. He
looked up at her from this position, with
his melting eyes, and at last laid his
head upon her knee. He stroked his flat,
white cheek against the smoothness of
her dress, looking at her beseechingly.
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The whites of his eyes rolled with an
upward flash. He settled his hind
quarters coyly, and lay still looking up.
His eyes brimmed with trustfulness,
and he lifted his near fore in a gesture of
pawing. It was a movement in the air
only, which said, Now attend to me.
Give me some love. Stroke my mane,
will you, please?
Here was a choking noise from
Agravaine in the ambush and at once he
was rushing toward the unicorn, with
the sharp boar-spear in his hands. The
other boys squatted upright on their
heels, watching him.
Agravaine came to the unicorn, and
began jabbing his spear into its quarters,
into its slim belly, into its ribs. He
squealed as he jabbed, and the unicorn
looked to Meg in anguish. It leaped and
moved suddenly, still looking at her
reproachfully, and Meg took its horn in
one hand.
She seemed entranced,
unable to help it. The unicorn did not
seem able to move from the soft grip of
her hand on its horn. The blood, caused
by Agravaine’s spear, spurted out upon
the blue-white coat of hair.
Gareth
began
running,
with
Gawaine close after him. Gaheris came
last, stupid and not knowing what to
do.
trembling in the agony of death. All he
time his eyes were fixed on Meg’s eyes,
and she still looked down at his.
GARETH: Don’t!
Don’t! Don’t!
NARRATOR: Gareth stood square in
front of Agravaine, who was three years
older than he was and could have
knocked him down quite easily.
Leave him alone.
NARRATOR: Gawaine came up, just as
Agravaine’s spear went in under the
fifth rib. The unicorn shuddered. He
trembled in all his body, and stretched
his hind legs out behind. They went out
almost straight, as if he were doing his
greatest leap—and then quivered,
AGRAVAINE: (shouting) What are you
doing? Leave him alone. No harm to
him.
MEG: Oh, Unicorn.
NARRATOR:
The unicorn’s legs
stretched out horizontally behind him,
and stopped trembling.
His head
dropped in Meg’s lap. After a last kick
they became rigid, and the blue lids rose
half over the eye. The creature lay still.
GARETH: What have you done? You
have killed him. He was beautiful.
AGRAVAINE: This girl is my mother.
He put his head in her lap. He had to
die.
GAWAINE: We said we would keep
him.
We said we would take him
home, and be allowed to supper.
MEG: Poor unicorn.
GAHERIS:
dead.
Look!
I am afraid he is
GARETH: Why did you do it? You are
a murderer. It was a lovely unicorn.
Why did you kill it?
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AGRAVAINE:
mother’s lap.
His head was in our
GARETH: It did not mean any harm.
Its hoofs were silver.
AGRAVAINE: It was a unicorn, and it
had to be killed. I ought to have killed
Meg too.
GAWAINE: You are a traitor.
We
could have taken it home, and been
allowed to serve at supper.
GAHERIS: Anyway, now it is dead.
NARRATOR: Meg bowed her head
over the unicorn’s forelock of white, and
once again began to sob.
Gareth began stroking the head. He
had to turn away to hide his tears. By
stroking it, he had found out how
smooth and soft its coat was. He had
seen a near view of its eye, now quickly
fading, and this had brought the
tragedy home to him.
GAHERIS:
Well, it is dead now.
Whatever. We had better take it home.
GAWAINE: But we did.
NARRATOR: Gawaine had forgotten
about his sorrow for the unicorn. He
began to dance round the body, waving
his boar-spear and uttering horrible
shrieks.
GAHERIS: We must have a gralloch.
We must do the matter properly, and
cut its insides out, and sling it over a
pony, and take it home to the castle, like
proper hunters.
GAWAINE:
pleased!
And then she will be
GAHERIS: She will say, God’s Feet, but
my sons are of mickle might!
GAWAINE: We shall be allowed to be
like Sir Grummore and King Pellinore.
Everything will be well with us from
now on.
GAHERIS: How must we set about the
gralloch?
AGRAVAINE: We cut out its guts,
said Agravaine.
GAWAINE: We managed to catch one!
NARRATOR: The wonder of their
achievement beginning to dawn on him.
AGRAVAINE: It was a brute.
GAWAINE:
ourselves!
We caught it! We of
GAHERIS: Sir Grummore did not catch
one.
NARRATOR: Gareth got up and began
to go away into the heather.
GARETH: I do not want to help cut
him. Do you, Meg?
NARRATOR: Meg, who was feeling ill
inside herself, made no answer. Gareth
untied her hair—and suddenly she was
off, running for all she was worth away
from the tragedy, toward the castle.
Gareth ran after her.
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GARETH: Meg, Meg! Wait for me. Do
not run.
NARRATOR: But Meg continued to
run, as swiftly as an antalop, with her
bare feet twinkling behind her, and
Gareth gave it up. He flung himself
down in the heather and began to cry in
earnest—he did not know why.
NARRATOR: At the gralloch, the three
remaining huntsmen were in trouble.
They had begun to slit at the skin of the
belly, but they did not know how to do
it properly and so they had perforated
the intestines. Everything had begun to
be horrible, and the once beautiful
animal was spoiled and repulsive. All
three of them loved the unicorn in their
various ways, Agravaine in the most
twisted one, and, in proportion as they
became responsible for spoiling its
beauty, so they began to hate it for their
guilt. Gawaine particularly began to
hate the body. He hated it for being
dead, for having been beautiful, for
making him feel a beast. He had loved it
and helped to trap it, so now there was
nothing to be done except to vent his
shame and hatred of himself upon the
corpse. He hacked and cut and felt like
crying too.
GAWAINE: We shall not ever get it
done. How can we ever carry it down,
even if we manage the gralloch?
GAHERIS: But we must. We must. It
we do not, what will be the good? We
must take it home.
GAWAINE: We cannot carry it.
GAHERIS: We don’t have a pony.
GAWAINE: At a gralloch, they sling
the beast over a pony.
AGRAVAINE: We must cut his head
off. We must cut its head off somehow,
and carry that. It would be enough if we
took the head. We could carry it
between us.
NARRATOR: So they set to work,
hating their work, at the horrid business
of hacking through its neck.
Gareth stopped crying in the
heather. He rolled over on his back, and
immediately he was looking straight
into the sky. The clouds which were
sailing majestically across its endless
depth made him feel giddy. He thought:
GARETH: How far is it to that cloud?
A mile? And the one above it? Two
miles? And beyond that a mile and a
mile, and a million miles, all in the
empty blue. Perhaps I will fall off the
earth now, supposing the earth is
upside down, and then I shall do sailing
away. I shall try to catch hold of the
clouds as I pass them, but they will not
stop me. Where shall I go?
NARRATOR:
This thought made
Gareth feel sick, and, as he was also
feeling ashamed of himself for running
away from the gralloch, he became
uncomfortable all over. In these
circumstances, the only thing to do was
to abandon the place in which he was
feeling uncomfortable, in the hope of
leaving his discomfort behind him. He
got up and went back to the others.
7
GAWAINE: Hallo. Did you catch her?
GARETH: No, she escaped away to the
castle.
GAHERIS: I hope she will not tell
anybody. It has to be a surprise, or it is
no good for us.
NARRATOR: The three butchers were
daubed with sweat and blood, and they
were absolutely miserable. Agravaine
had been sick twice. Yet they continued
in their labor and Gareth helped them.
GAWAINE: It is no good stopping
now. Think how good it will be, if we
can take it to our mother.
NARRATOR: Only one of them at a
time could get a good hold of the horn,
so they took it in turns to do the
hauling, while the others pushed behind
when the head got snagged in a heather
root or a drain. It was heavy for them,
even in this way, so that they had to
stop every twenty yards or so, to change
over.
GAWAINE: When we get to the castle,
we will prop it up in the seat in the
garden. Our mother is bound to walk
past there, when she goes for her walk
before supper. Then we will stand in
front of it until she is ready, and all will
suddenly step back at once, and there it
will be.
GARETH: She will be surprised!
GAHERIS:
She will probably come
upstairs to say good night to us, if we
can take her what she needs.
GARETH: She will laugh, and say we
are mighty hunters.
NARRATOR: When the grisly spine
was severed, the head was too heavy to
carry. They got themselves in a mess,
trying to lift it.
GAWAINE: It had better be dragged
with a rope.
GAHERIS: There is none.
GARETH: We could drag it by the
horn. At any rate we could drag and
push it like that, so long as it was
downhill.
NARRATOR: When they had at last
got it down from the sloping ground,
there was another hitch. They found
that it was no longer possible to drag it
on the flat land, because the horn did
not give enough purchase.
In this emergency, for it was getting
near to suppertime, Gareth voluntarily
ran ahead to fetch a rope. The rope was
tied round what remained of the head,
and thus at last, with eyes ruined, flesh
bruised and separating from the bones,
the muddy, bloody, heather-mangled
exhibit was conveyed on its last stage to
the herb garden. They heaved it to the
seat, and arranged its mane as well as
they could. Gareth particularly tried to
prop it up so that it would give a little
idea of the beauty which he
remembered.
The magic queen came punctually
on her walk, conversing with Sir
8
Grummore and followed her lap dogs:
Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart. She did
not notice her four sons, lined up in
front of the seat.
They stood
respectfully in a row, dirty, excited,
their breasts beating with hope.
GAWAINE: Now!
NARRATOR: They stood aside. Queen
Morgause did not see the unicorn. Her
mind was busy with other things. With
Sir Grummore she passed by.
GARETH: Mother! cried Gareth in a
strange voice, and he ran after her,
plucking at her skirt.
MORGAUSE:
Yes, my white one?
What do you want?
GARETH: Oh, Mother. We have got
you a unicorn.
MORGAUSE: How amusing they are,
Sir Grummore. Well, my doves, you
must run along and ask for your milk.
GARETH: But, Mammy…
MORGAUSE: Yes, yes. Another time.
NARRATOR: And the Queen passed
on with the puzzled knight, electrical
and quiet. She had not noticed that her
children’s clothes were ruined: had not
even scolded them about that. When
she found out about the unicorn later in
the evening she had them whipped for
it, for she had spent an unsuccessful day
with the English knights.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. How are the boys’ temperaments
different from one another?
2. What could the unicorn symbolize?
3. Give some instances of the boys’
cruelty. Why do they not know they
are being cruel?
4. What does this tell us about a
person’s childhood?
5. Contrast the Orkney boys with
young King Arthur. How would he
have
handled
the
situation
differently?
6. What does the difference between
the dialect of the boys and the
kitchenmaid show us?
7. What part do the boys’ ages and/or
birth order play a role in their
characterizations?
8. What is childish about the boys?
What is mature? Do any of the boys
mature throughout the story? How?
9. Misogyny is a hatred of women.
Explain how Agravaine seems to
display this tendency.
10. List some examples of figurative
language used to describe the
unicorn. What effect does this
figurative language have on the
reader?
11. One brother seems to hate the
unicorn.
Identify
him,
and
hypothesize as to why this is.
12. How is Gareth’s approach to the
unicorn unique?
13. What are some of Agravaine’s
psychopathic tendencies?
9
14. As the boys attempt to get the
carcass of the unicorn home, what is
happening symbolically?
10
QUESTIONS: Explain your answer clearly.
Show how the boys’ temperaments differ from one another.
The Unicorn is a symbol. Hypothesize what it could symbolize using examples.
Give some instances of the boys’ cruelty. Why do they not know they are being cruel?
What does this tell us about a person’s childhood?
Contrast the Orkney boys with young King Arthur. How would he have handled the
situation differently?
What does the difference between the dialect of the boys and the kitchenmaid show
us? Also describe their treatment of the girl.
Explain how the boys’ ages and/or birth order play a role in their characterizations.
What is childish about the boys? What is mature? Do any of the boys mature
throughout the story? How?
11
Misogyny is a hatred of women. Explain how Agravaine displays this tendency.
Hypothesize as to the root of this problem.
List some examples of figurative language used to describe the unicorn.
One brother seems to hate the unicorn. Identify him, and hypothesize as to why this
is.
How is Gareth’s approach to the unicorn unique?
What are some of Agravaine’s psychopathic tendencies?
As the boys attempt to get the carcass of the unicorn home, what is happening
symbolically?
12